A Dark New Chapter for New Jersey: All-Trimester Abortion Clinic Planned in Hudson County

By the Center for Garden State Families
October 24, 2025

It was only a matter of time.
New Jersey—already one of the most permissive states in America for abortion—is poised to become home to its first all-trimester abortion clinic, a facility that would end the lives of unborn babies right up to the moment of birth.

According to nj.com, abortionist Dr. Kristyn Brandi and nurse practitioner Catherine Obando are working to open the Luminosa Wellness Collective in Hudson County by summer 2026. The pair say they are “tired of referring women out of state for late abortions.” The clinic, which calls itself “a light in the dark,” would in fact perform abortions through all stages of pregnancy.

“A light for whom?” asks Marie Tasy, Executive Director of New Jersey Right to Life. “Certainly not the full-term babies who are days or even moments from birth, nor the mothers who will suffer the physical and emotional pain of late-term abortion.”

The Luminosa website frames its mission as “reproductive justice” and “trauma-informed care,” but its proposed services include abortions up to birth, so-called “gender-affirming” drugs, HIV support, and OB-GYN care. Even national media acknowledge that there are currently no abortionists in New Jersey performing abortions past 28 weeks, making this the first of its kind in the state and potentially a political flashpoint in the 2025 gubernatorial race.

A State Without Limits

New Jersey is one of only nine states plus Washington, D.C. with no gestational limits on abortion. Despite this, there are only a handful of clinics nationwide that abort babies in the third trimester—when the child can feel pain, survive outside the womb, and is unmistakably human in every respect.

“New Jersey has become the abortion capital of the East Coast,” said Rev. Gregory Quinlan, President of the Center for Garden State Families. “Now the abortion industry wants to push us over the moral cliff by normalizing abortion literally up to birth.”

A recent Marist poll confirms that New Jersey voters overwhelmingly oppose late-term abortion and support clear limits, especially once the unborn child can feel pain. Yet the state’s leadership continues to defy that moral consensus.

The Politics of Extremism

During a recent gubernatorial debate, Republican candidate Jack Ciattarelli stated:

“What I don’t support is celebrating abortion the very way the current administration does. What I don’t support is making New Jersey the abortion capital of the country… I also support something my opponent does not: parental notification.”

His Democratic opponent, Mikie Sherrill, has promised to enshrine abortion in the state constitution and continue taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood. As a congresswoman, she voted against H.R. 26, the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, signaling opposition even to medical care for babies born alive after failed abortions.

“It doesn’t get more extreme than that,” said Tasy. “That’s not reproductive justice—that’s barbarism.”

Facts the Media Ignore

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recorded 625,978 legal abortions in 2021—and 1 percent of those (over 6,000) were performed after 21 weeks. The pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute estimated over 1 million abortions in 2023, meaning at least 10,000 late-term babies may have been killed that year. These figures don’t include nine states, including New Jersey, which refuse to report full data—so the real number is likely higher.

Medical science has long known that unborn babies feel pain by 20 weeks. Fetal surgeons routinely use anesthesia during in-utero procedures, and babies as young as 24 weeks—and sometimes earlier—can survive outside the womb with modern neonatal care.

“For more than 70 years, medicine has acknowledged fetal pain,” said Rev. Quinlan. “We give anesthesia to babies for in-utero surgery—but New Jersey law allows them to be dismembered without mercy. That must end.”

The Policy Solution: The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act

The Center for Garden State Families strongly supports the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (S-382, sponsored by Sen. Joe Pennacchio, and A-4557, sponsored by Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia and *Assemblyman John DiMaio).
This life-saving legislation would prohibit abortions 20 weeks or more after fertilization, the stage at which overwhelming medical evidence shows unborn babies can feel pain.

This bill is modeled after similar laws enacted in 19 other states, reflecting a broad national consensus that extreme, late-term abortion is inhumane and unnecessary.
If passed, this act would align New Jersey law with the compassion, science, and moral clarity that most of our citizens already support.